I'm still on the hunt for a 997.2 GT3 and wanted to ask your views on desirable and not desirable spec. I think I need a club sport car, or at least a comfort car with buckets, front lift and engine mounts. The other spec items seem more nice to have than essential, but I'd welcome your views.

Also, colour. I'm not a fan of white and also think the blue Hexagon car looks a bit sombre, but again views welcome.

On pricing these seem to keep going up, but apart from. Apart from a 911uk economy crash I'm hoping this is a safer place for my money than a new carerra!

Clubsport and without lift unless you have a warranty as it is notoriously unreliable.

That's interesting as the other feedback is that no lift is bad news! I'll need it anyway as I have a sloping drive, but would have warranty.

I've never wished that I had lift. You will occasionally hear the plastic splitter or brake ducts grounding, but by Porsche standards those are not spendy items to swap out so it really is a non issue. Yes the ramp transition angle is fairly shallow, but it isn't as bad as something like a 996.1 GT3 (unless of course you have the ride height dropped). The concern with lift is that at one point a couple of years ago, 100% of people that I'd met who had a well tracked 997.2 GT3 or RS fitted with the lift system had had issues with them - the kind of issues that would turn your hair white if not covered by a warranty. People who used them mostly or entirely as road cars seem to have had few issues, so on a lightly used comfort there might not be as many grounds for concern.

The important bit is that you really do want bucket seats. Ideally a Clubsport, but failing that a comfort with buckets. You also do not want a car with the air conditioning deleted (admittedly there aren't many of those out there, but bear it in mind). For a car that can pick up a lot of speed almost imperceptibly in a country with a lot of motorway speed cameras I am also a fan of cruise control and I also favour the PCM console too (the nav itself is a bit out of date, but the iPod/Phone/USB integration and the handsfree phone is a bit useful). The engine mounts - never missed those either and it is something else to one day go wrong as far as I am concerned.

Mileage affects value, so spend more on low miles if it is going to sit in your garage and a little less on high miles if you are actually going to use it. No sense in buying a garage queen and driving all of the value out of it - they are robust cars and thoroughly rebuildable, so looked after they can be refreshed to as new for a chunk of cash in perpetuity.

So long as you get the right example for you : there is no regret in buying any GT3 (though if I am honest, to my mind the factory warranty would be an absolute must if you were looking at the 991. Less so with the earlier cars. Unless they have lift)._________________Colin

Black 997 GT3 3.8 CS - Acquired for the 2012 season and beyond
Black 996 GT3 Mk2 - Gone, but will never be forgotten

9005rmNewbie

Joined: 15 Jun 2017Posts: 12

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2017 5:51 pm Post subject:

Disco wrote:

9005rm wrote:

kas750 wrote:

Clubsport and without lift unless you have a warranty as it is notoriously unreliable.

That's interesting as the other feedback is that no lift is bad news! I'll need it anyway as I have a sloping drive, but would have warranty.

I've never wished that I had lift. You will occasionally hear the plastic splitter or brake ducts grounding, but by Porsche standards those are not spendy items to swap out so it really is a non issue. Yes the ramp transition angle is fairly shallow, but it isn't as bad as something like a 996.1 GT3 (unless of course you have the ride height dropped). The concern with lift is that at one point a couple of years ago, 100% of peopleh that I'd met who had a well tracked 997.2 GT3 or RS fitted with the lift system had had issues with them - the kind of issues that would turn your hair white if not covered by a warranty. People who used them mostly or entirely as road cars seem to have had few issues, so on a lightly used comfort there might not be as many grounds for concern.

The important bit is that you really do want bucket seats. Ideally a Clubsport, but failing that a comfort with buckets. You also do not want a car with the air conditioning deleted (admittedly there aren't many of those out there, but bear it in mind). For a car that can pick up a lot of speed almost imperceptibly in a country with a lot of motorway speed cameras I am also a fan of cruise control and I also favour the PCM console too (the nav itself is a bit out of date, but the iPod/Phone/USB integration and the handsfree phone is a bit useful). The engine mounts - never missed those either and it is something else to one day go wrong as far as I am concerned.

Mileage affects value, so spend more on low miles if it is going to sit in your garage and a little less on high miles if you are actually going to use it. No sense in buying a garage queen and driving all of the value out of it - they are robust cars and thoroughly rebuildable, so looked after they can be refreshed to as new for a chunk of cash in perpetuity.

So long as you get the right example for you : there is no regret in buying any GT3 (though if I am honest, to my mind the factory warranty would be an absolute must if you were looking at the 991. Less so with the earlier cars. Unless they have lift).

Good advice, thank you Colin. I'd only consider a car with lift and a warranty so all ok there. I think I'll be ok with the buckets, though given how important they seem to be, I'm amazed at how many cars (including 991s) don't seem to have them. Depends on body shape I guess, though for me I felt they added to the drama and experience. I might get my in touch with 911v and go and have a look at their car - looks nice, albeit up on miles.

m119carsSilverstone

Joined: 28 Jan 2015Posts: 101

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2017 7:08 pm Post subject:

Your already searching from a relatively small pool of vehicles so there may have to be a compromise on some things.

Rightly or wrongly I was in the market for one 8 months ago as a place to park some money, with a few fun drives out on warm sunny mornings with the hope of modest return if I decided to sell in a few years. What I realised early on in my search was the non clubsport cars hang around a lot longer and most clubsports sell very quickly regardless of the other spec.

My criteria was a low mile, original panel clubsport car with correct history, I wasn't to concerned by low owners as most seem to have had at least 3/4, as I won't be tracking it PCCB and the active mounts didn't bother me but I did want the sound package and the USB interface.

What do you intend to use the car for?_________________997.2....Halfords body kit and noisy exhaust.

CheibMonza

Joined: 20 Feb 2016Posts: 230

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2017 7:16 pm Post subject:

I don't think the market is quite as frothy for these as it was at the beginning of the year...I remember JZM commenting on that in their monthly "market report".

I've read somewhere lift if it goes wrong is a £10k bill.

Comfort with buckets is a rare spec....if everything else is right and you don't want the CS I'd consider buying a comfort and putting buckets in. They are not cheap but there's definitely a pricing differential or you could keep the original seats and put them back in when you come to sell. I reckon you'd get more than 50% of your money back on the buckets two or three years down the line._________________997 GTS Manual
Cayenne S Diesel
Ruby Star 718 Boxster - Mrs Cheib's car

DiggermeisterSpa-Francorchamps

Joined: 26 May 2015Posts: 306

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2017 8:53 am Post subject:

I'm thinking about this; buckets are not cheap if you want the (very nice and IMHO extremely comfortable) folding carbon buckets with integral side air bags; around 7k EUR for a pair.

I'm thinking about this; buckets are not cheap if you want the (very nice and IMHO extremely comfortable) folding carbon buckets with integral side air bags; around 7k EUR for a pair.

Teile.com are generally the place to go if you are not trying to beat a discount out of your OPC and they have the 997 version of the folding buckets at €4.581,56 per chair (so actually over €9k plus installation for a pair, potentially minus what you can eBay the other chairs for). In general it is consequently still usually cheaper to get a car with them rather than retrofit.

Folding buckets in a gen 2 non-Clubsport are much more common than buckets in the gen 1 equivalent (they were a straightforward option in the gen 2, but the fixed buckets in the gen 1 {the folding ones didn't exist at the time} were an extra £4k so almost never got specified unless the buyer was going for Clubsport). In my experience, folding buckets in a non-CS gen 2 are still more common than actual Clubsports, hence the point._________________Colin

Black 997 GT3 3.8 CS - Acquired for the 2012 season and beyond
Black 996 GT3 Mk2 - Gone, but will never be forgotten

9005rmNewbie

Joined: 15 Jun 2017Posts: 12

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2017 1:01 pm Post subject:

On the subject of seats, is there much of a difference between the folding buckets and the fixed GT buckets? I read somewhere that the latter are narrower, and whether that is a good thing or not I guess depends on your size.

Wow, interesting comparison between the 911v and JZM cars, both look fantastic to me, main difference seems to be 15k miles and £19k_________________Past pleasures: 997.2 C4S Cab, 993 C2, 997.1 C2S, 996.1 C4

DiggermeisterSpa-Francorchamps

Joined: 26 May 2015Posts: 306

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 7:20 am Post subject:

9005rm wrote:

On the subject of seats, is there much of a difference between the folding buckets and the fixed GT buckets? I read somewhere that the latter are narrower, and whether that is a good thing or not I guess depends on your size.

Not 100% about the seats, but I'm pretty sure the 997.2 folding buckets are exactly the same as those used in the 991 GT3 (and RS) and are very comfortable. From memory (it was a while ago and only a brief lap of the Nurburgring) the 997.1 fixed buckets are perhaps a bit slimmer in fit.

See below on the colour!

MJA911 wrote:

Wow, interesting comparison between the 911v and JZM cars, both look fantastic to me, main difference seems to be 15k miles and £19k

On the subject of seats, is there much of a difference between the folding buckets and the fixed GT buckets? I read somewhere that the latter are narrower, and whether that is a good thing or not I guess depends on your size.

The fixed ones are actually quite a bit narrower. Not simply across the hips either but also across the shoulders, so quite a few people don't get on with them too well. If you have a small frame then you will be okay but if not then you should try a set for size as they could well be an exclusion criteria. The folding ones, however, are much closer in fit to the 996 buckets and are a comfortable fit for most people - ever the fairly powerfully built._________________Colin

Black 997 GT3 3.8 CS - Acquired for the 2012 season and beyond
Black 996 GT3 Mk2 - Gone, but will never be forgotten

... I'm pretty sure the 997.2 folding buckets are exactly the same as those used in the 991 GT3 (and RS) and are very comfortable.

The 991 folding buckets look the same and fit the same as the 997.2 ones (so from a comfort perspective I agree), however they do have different part numbers and the 991 version is for reasons unknown cheaper. The only material difference that I am aware of is that the 991 version could be optioned with seat heating and the 997 could not. I couldn't tell you if the differences would prevent you from using the 991 in a 997 or vice versa though._________________Colin

Black 997 GT3 3.8 CS - Acquired for the 2012 season and beyond
Black 996 GT3 Mk2 - Gone, but will never be forgotten

Atlas is a great colour in the metal. Best known around here as the colour of a certain 996 Clubsport bearing the legendary plate NXI20

Atlas is one of those colours that is properly "stealth". I fly under the radar very well in mine. Looks great in the sun & pretty dull at all other times.

As I also own a 997.2 Clubsport with the super-rare Carrera GT carbon shell fixed buckets (reputedly the lightest seats Porsche ever fitted to a production road car), I can confirm that they are less accommodating of the larger gentlemen and are pretty tight in the shoulder department. I fit just fine (& they are really great seats if you) do but I suspect that anyone even slightly larger would struggle to get comfortable.

I don't have lift & like Disco, have never felt disadvantaged. Once you learn the techniques to get around the limitations, it's really never an issue._________________Nick

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